Surfing Sunday 1/27/13

I saw this pic and just had to laugh. I don't know why but it made me chuckle and I'm putting it on here as one of my favorite silly things "just because". So, thar ya go...

Ok, well I'm starting off my surfing Sunday late as I've had a lot of company today and two families in my family are moving so there is a lot of shuffling and loading going on and everyone lends what hands they can.

First off, been researching homemade dog food this last week because the dogs have been having issues with hot spots and other skin stuff and they don't have worms but eat a lot of dry dog food and still look thin. In between the cats & the dogs we are going through 50 lbs of food a month. I put the cats outside and changed their food. They used to get *just* dog food and before anyone starts caterwaling that dog food doesn't provide enough protein for them, listen up, it provides enough protein for the cats when they are hunting. BUT, things are evidently scarce right now because 4 cats have been scarfing like crazy and I went to the net for research since a change was in order for everyone. I've always hated dry dog food anyway and I've got some time now, so I wanted to catch up on what the current information was about homemade food for my animals.

Growing up we made homemade food quite often and I've done it when I've got an animal that seems to have an issue with store-bought food but it seems I'd always fall back on the "convenience" of ready made food after awhile if the animal's issues lessened. Yah yah, knowing the amount of animal care I do, I know better. I really felt a change was in order and I'm not going to "fall back" after this last week. NO WAY! The dogs are doing great (and so are the cats, lol).

 Just look at Temperance, with a face like that, how can I not take the time to do what is best for my fuzzy mugs? Of course I must!

I started both the cats and dogs over to homemade recipes after all my research and the best site I found for general information (for "newbies") is here: Homemade Dog Food although there are a couple of small items I generally disagree with the writer on, it's pretty well on target. To each his own y'know.

Max (above) & Sassafrass

 I found a comment with great tips on the "Don't feed your dog..." page. The link: comment by Doug Noyce addresses the garlic issue and some other noteworthy items. I see a lot of people saying don't feed your dogs garlic but I do. It doesn't hurt them when added to their food and it is a natural flea and tick repellent. Works great in fact. Onions, though, I won't feed my dogs onions ever! Just like grapes, raisins...etc...

Icicle (aka Little Miss "Icey" or IceyPop

Ok, so check it out for yourself :)  My dog food recipe is pretty close to the one posted at the homemade dog food site. There were even recipes for homemade dog food at allrecipes.com! BUT, I was reading some of them it was like eh? Rosemary? I'm not putting rosemary in the dogs' food. I don't think so... but to each his own. I'm not putting in random spices because there isn't a lot of research on herbs and their reactions when ingested by dogs. Some dogs have chicken allergies for crying out loud so please, if you're going to start making your own dog food use your head and do your research. They really are "man's best friend", and an important member of many families and we need to take care of them to ensure they've got the best chance of sticking around as long as possible.

Bubba-Beau taking a nap like old guys like to do...

OK, I have several other things I was going to write about but because the hour is late (for me, for my nap) I am going to postpone *those* until later tonight and just post this now and add the rest later. I've got to go rest, hopefully get a nap for a little even. OK, later...